BTS ❤︎ Oreos
What do you think? Smash or trash?
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On a recent trip to the Kroger’s in my rural Ohio hometown, I came across a display of BTS Oreos at the end of the coffee aisle, partially blocking shelves of Lays chips.
Forget that I haven’t had an Oreo in decades. I had to buy me some.
The BTS Oreos supposedly have a brown sugar pancake flavor, which was “inspired by hotteok, BTS’ favorite snack” according to the cookie package. It also proclaims that they are “[s]traight from the Seoul street markets.”
The cookies are purple—like ube—with a beige filling in the middle. There are different custom embossments printed on the cookies, which the BTS boys supposedly had some input into.
Cut to the chase. How do they taste?
My vote? Kind of meh…
Let’s be clear. I’ve had hotteok, and these did not taste like that. Not in the slightest. Nor did they taste like bubble waffles as some in social media have suggested.
I think they smell and taste like chemically derived maple syrup. The smell bugged me so much that I had to store them in a sealed Tupperware container.
The purple cookie part was ok—nice and crisp but kind of bland. I scrapped the offensive filling off several and popped just the cookie in my mouth. Not bad, but not really worth the calories.
Aside from the bad maple flavoring, the filling was creamy and smooth. The crunchy sugar crystals in it are a nice touch. Not nice enough to offset the yucky taste, however.
Even more shocking than seeing a display for anything BTS in my hometown was reading that LOTS of people like these Oreos. Folks on Reddit, Substack, and YouTube couldn’t say enough good things about them. The Kitchn staffer Andrea Kaufman wrote that she keeps a pack on her desk.
Lucky for me I don’t work in her office.
I couldn’t possibly be the only person in the world who gave these a thumbs down. Or could I? If you’ve tried them, let me know what you thought of them.
Whatever the taste, Nabisco does deserve an A for its multicultural efforts—especially in our current environment. My kiddo tells me that there were other Nabisco Oreo collabs recently, including one with Selena Gomez, where the cookies tasted like horchata.
A cinnamon horchata Oreo? I’d give Nabisco a second chance for one of those.
Addictive, delicious! But my cholesterol numbers came back high, so not going to indulge! Five days after test numbers dropped, my diet has already changed!